Hello everyone! I had a good retreat at St. Meinrad Archabbey in Indiana this week. As you can see in the pictures, the weather started off nice and mild, then turned to beautiful snow. It was peaceful. I got to pray with the monks, eat good food, and catch up on reading.
In imitation of my 10 year old nephew, I read a book called Among the Hidden, which is the first book in a series of seven books by author Margaret Peterson Haddix. The main character, Luke, is a 12 year old boy who is the third child in a family who are living under a population control law that only allows two children per family. Luke has to remain completely hidden in the house and can never go outside. One day, he spots a third child next door peeking out the window and he risks everything to meet up with her. Together, they hatch a bold plan to forever end the unjust law and to be able to come out of the shadows. My nephew enjoyed the book and wrote a book report on it for school. I also read a third of the book The Plague by Albert Camus, which was published in 1948. It is a fascinating fictional story of a small town dealing with a plague which began with rats, then spread throughout the population. The town had to isolate from the rest of the world. It is Camus’ imaginative account of how the people respond to the plague and has many similarities to what we’ve seen in our pandemic. I also read a large chunk of To Save a Thousand Souls by Fr. Brett Brannen which is a guidebook answering questions for those discerning a calling to the diocesan priesthood. It was kind of some homework since I was named as the regional vocations promoter for the Marion deanery. That means that I will be working with the parishes in Marion, Marysville, and Delaware to help promote vocations to the priesthood. You will be hearing about the “Melchizedek Project” in the upcoming months which will be a gathering for high school and college age students who might be considering a call to the priesthood. The most influential way to help young men to consider the priesthood is by talking about it and encouraging them. I remember a lady who would see me praying after Mass and then would say to me afterwards, “I think you should be a priest.” I wanted to run away and then she would bug me about it every so often that I finally got mad and thought about all the reasons why I should not be a priest. But in thinking about it, it made me realize why I should be a priest and eventually I wanted to be a priest. So, it doesn’t hurt to occasionally “bug” young men to think about it by encouraging them. Think about why would they make a good priest. What do you see in them? Good Christian virtues? A good disposition? Holiness? In a word, do you see Jesus in them? If you know of anyone who would make a good priest, then bring them to my attention so that together we can gently encourage them to at least think about the priesthood. Finally, I read a chunk of a book that my mother wrote. It is basically an autobiography based on questions my siblings and I asked her throughout this last year. Everything she wrote was compiled into this book, along with photos, through a website called Storyworth. It was quite an adventure to read things about her that I didn’t know.
Bishop Robert Barron recently wrote an article about how so many of us spend our time on our smart devices or tv, that we’ve lost the art and the skill of reading, and even our attention span! Reading enlightens the mind, increases one’s worldview and perspective, and fosters creativity and critical thinking. If you have gotten out of the habit of reading, I would encourage you to turn off your tv, have some silence, and then pick up a good book. If you need to start off easy to get into the habit of reading, then begin with children’s fictional books. There are already so many good ones out there, but contemporary ones are always being published. I’ve been hearing recently about a new author who is called the C.S. Lewis of this generation. His name is C.R. Stewart and he has written the Britfield series. I purchased the first book, Britfield and the Lost Crown, to see if I can recommend it for middle schoolers and above, especially since the books will be made into movies.
I would also recommend a good habit of reading the Scriptures. A good way to start if you have a hard time reading it is to listen to the Bible in a Year series with Fr. Mike Schmitz. Just look it up online and find the myriad ways that you can access the short 20 minute Bible readings and reflections. All 365 days are complete so you can listen to as many as you want at a time.
If you’ve already missed some days on the 54 day rosary novena that we began on January 1st, don’t worry, just keep going. If the prayers in addition to the rosary are too much for you, then at least just pray the rosary every day and make it for the intention of an end to abortion through a culture of life and for an end to this pandemic.
The offertory envelopes just arrived at OLL and will be put out by next weekend after they get labelled. This could also be a good opportunity to learn to give online on our websites. Just go to lourdesada.org/give or icckenton.org/give and you’ll find the instructions there.
Happy feast of the Baptism of the Lord this weekend (and the end of the Christmas season)!
Attached are the ICC bulletin (OLL’s will be posted later on the website) and Fr. Ferguson’s cat column.
Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us!
Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, pray for us!
God bless!
Fr. Ed
